His Father's House
by epalladino
Summary: It's the culmination of Hellboy's final battle. Comicverse story set at the end of "Hellboy in Hell, #10: For Whom the Bell Tolls." However, all of my "Hellboy" stories have connections to the 2004 movie. Major spoilers if you haven't read "For Whom the Bell Tolls."


**Author's note:** I know I haven't been writing "Hellboy" stories recently; but after reading and re-reading "Hellboy in Hell, #10: For Whom the Bell Tolls," I just couldn't resist.

Beware of MAJOR spoilers if you haven't yet read this final "current day" installment in Mike Mignola's "Hellboy" and "Hellboy in Hell" series. I, myself, thought that this mysterious, evocative, and almost silent culmination to Hellboy's fated role in Mignola's universe was absolutely brilliant. And it brings Hellboy back, once again, full circle, to the decision he made at the end of "Hellboy: Wake the Devil," that he and only he is in control of his fate.

If you've never read the Mike and Katie Mignola comic "The Magician and the Snake," you need to read it. That is where the three solid objects at the end of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" hail from.

I recently re-read every thing from "Hellboy: Seed of Destruction" through to this final volume of "Hellboy in Hell" (leaving out the "B.P.R.D" and "Abe Sapien" arcs), and I am amazed at how coherent Mignola kept the through-story in Hellboy's life from beginning to end, and beyond the end. It is also interesting to note that the stars that show up at the end of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" also appear in other significant places in the "Hellboy" series, such as when Hellboy first dies and loses his heart while in Africa or on the cover to "Hellboy: The Midnight Circus."

This story could be looked upon as a sequel to my comicverse story "His Father's Son," but it also could be looked upon as a sequel to my movieverse story "Family Portrait." If you read either (or both) of these stories, I'm sure you will see why.

 **Disclaimer:** As Hellboy would say, "These characters aren't mine … blah, blah, blah."

 **My Father's House**

Hellboy wandered along the seashore in a dark and blasted landscape. He almost couldn't recall how he had gotten there. He could barely recall that he was supposed to be dead.

After a while, he began to notice that the sky, which had always been dark and clouded as long as he had been in this wretched place, was becoming lighter and lighter. White birds now wheeled through the sky over the beach and ocean.

As Hellboy walked further along the shore, he saw on a hill overlooking the now peaceful ocean a patch of green grass with trees and a large house. It almost looked as if a little piece of England had suddenly appeared to welcome him.

He had once told Abe Sapien that he often liked to retreat to England after particularly ugly cases; and nothing had been more ugly than that final case that had ended his life on earth and brought him to this terrible place.

As he walked toward the strangely familiar house, he couldn't help recalling the times in his youth when he and the human man who had raised him would visit a friend in just such a house in England.

Before Hellboy had died, he had stayed in that house and while there recalled "the good old days" when the young Hellboy and his Father would travel around England with Harry. The human "Father" who had raised him was the only father Hellboy would acknowledge. He refused to accept any other being as his "real" father.

He walked into the slightly dark entranceway to the house and noticed that there was a light on in the upstairs part of the house. As he was drawn up the wooden staircase toward that light, he heard a faint echo of words that he had once heard on his first day on earth.

"Shoot it …," "Kill it …," "It's a demon come from Hell to destroy us all."

"No," a very familiar voice spoke out, "Like a little boy … Hellboy."

The light-filled room that Hellboy walked into looked like a room from Harry's house in England and also like a room in his father's house in Brooklyn. It was filled with shelves full of old books, comfortable cushioned couches, antique objects, and many portraits along the walls.

Floating in the room were three large solid objects, made of pure light. The power of this light filled the entire room with its magical presence.

Hellboy's memory jumped back to a time in his childhood when he was struggling with math. His father had told him a story about a magician and the snake who had loved him; and the three geometrical solids that the magician had conjured up and then banished to entertain his King. He recalled that in his father's story these three objects had reappeared to herald the death of the magician. At the time, Hellboy had thought that his father had just invented this story in an attempt to make his son's study of geometrical solids more entertaining.

He now realized that almost all of the bedtime stories his father had ever told him in his childhood had some grain of truth in them, some reality that went beyond the surface fiction. These three geometrical solids had represented more than the magician's power; they had also represented the power of love. And now these three brightly glowing objects were appearing to Hellboy to remind him of the power of his father's love.

As the blazing light absorbed Hellboy into it and the stars broke forth in the sky above the house, he recalled a particular passage of scripture that his father had loved to quote to Hellboy:

 _"In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also."_

Hellboy knew that after the struggle, defeat, and eventual victory of his life and death, his Father was finally welcoming him home.

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _Passage from the Gospel of John:_ _New Revised Standard Version_ _, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved._

 _ **Thanks for reading. All comments welcome.**_


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